Japan wants to share the lessons it learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster

SENDAI, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When professional
boxer and model Tomomi Takano heard that children in Japan's
Fukushima prefecture were becoming unfit and overweight as the
2011 nuclear crisis there limited the time they could play
outside, she decided to use her skills to help.

Early this month, the glamorous 27-year-old taught some 200
junior high school students in the village of Otama an indoor
workout based on boxing moves.

"They really concentrated on the boxing and tried hard," she said
at a recent U.N. conference on disasters in the northeastern city
of Sendai. The boxer hopes to run more sessions in Fukushima to
improve children's agility and provide an outlet for their
emotions.

Takano and civil society activists in Sendai said they wanted to
communicate to the rest of the world the human impacts of the
crisis sparked when a huge earthquake and tsunami caused nuclear
reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to melt down four years
ago.

Employees of Tokyo
Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-crippled
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, take part in a moment of silence
at 2:46 p.m. local time at TEPCO's headquarters in Tokyo March
11, 2015.REUTERS/Yuya
Shino

The nuclear disaster was a
sensitive subject at the U.N. summit, where 187 governments
adopted a new 15-year plan to reduce the risk of disasters around
the world.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made only passing reference to
it in his opening speech at the conference. But groups
representing citizens hit by the nuclear emergency acknowledged
that tentative progress was being made in Sendai.

Japan's Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe attends the national memorial service for the victims
of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Tokyo March 11,
2015.REUTERS/Toru
Hanai

Masaaki Ohashi, the co-chair of
JCC2015, a coalition of humanitarian NGOs formed ahead of the
summit, praised the new Sendai disaster reduction framework for
stating clearly that it applies to man-made and technological
hazards - which covers nuclear power - as well as natural
hazards.

He and others also noted the importance of an official
presentation made at the conference about the lessons learned
from the Fukushima crisis.

"The Japanese government, represented by the Cabinet Office, has
clearly indicated that they are breaking away from the 'safety'
myth around nuclear power plants, so we're seeing a step
forward," said Takeshi Komino, general secretary of aid agency
CWS Japan.

At a session on technological hazards, which also covered the
Chernobyl nuclear accident, Tetsuya Yamamoto, deputy director
general of Japan's Nuclear Disaster Management Bureau, said the
government was strengthening plans both to prevent and to respond
to nuclear emergencies.

Tanks of
radiation-contaminated water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co.
(TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
in Fukushima prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo on March
11, 2015.REUTERS/Kyodo

"Our preparedness (for
Fukushima) was totally inefficient - we assumed the incident
would affect a 10 km radius from the plant, but it was more than
30 km," he said.

The operation to evacuate people living in the danger zone was
confused and not enough support was provided, he said. Failings
meant that some hospital patients died at evacuation centers, he
noted.

A disaster prevention and evacuation plan has since been drawn up
for 550,000 people, Yamamoto said. The government is continuing
with its decontamination work, and is monitoring health in
Fukushima, offering tests for thyroid cancer to those aged 18 and
under, he added.

Japan's new Economy, Trade
and Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa (R), wearing a protective
suit and a mask, inspects the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s
tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in
Fukushima prefecture, in this photo released by Kyodo November 1,
2014.REUTERS/Kyodo

EXPORTING RISK?

Civil society groups supporting Fukushima residents still
struggling with the aftermath of the crisis launched a booklet at
the Sendai conference containing 10 key lessons from the
disaster, available in several languages including English.

It provides information on the effects of exposure to radiation,
and how at-risk people can better protect their health, homes and
livelihoods in the event of a nuclear crisis.

The booklet also describes how nuclear power was promoted through
advertising and other methods by the Japanese government and
Tokyo Electric Power Co in the 1960s and beyond, as a safe, clean
form of energy that would benefit local economies.

Komino of CWS Japan said it should be up to countries and
communities to decide whether they want nuclear power, but "we
are against the creation of the safety myth".

"Pro-active risk identification and risk disclosure to the
communities prior to the installation of such facilities is
critical," he emphasized.

A Tokyo Electric Power Co.
(TEPCO) employee wearing a protective suit and mask uses a survey
meter near storage tanks for radioactive water in the H4 area
where radioactive water leaked from a storage tank in August, at
the tsunami-crippled TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant in Fukushima prefecture November 7,
2013.REUTERS/Kimimasa
Mayama/Pool

JCC2015's Ohashi said that, as
the Japanese government aims to export nuclear energy technology
to developing countries, it bears a "producer's responsibility"
to share its knowledge about the risks and how to deal with
them.

"Japan has the ability to help us to learn as an international
community what some of the critical issues are," said Marcus
Oxley, executive director of the Global Network of Civil Society
Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR).

This is particularly important as climate change increases the
pressure to move from fossil fuel use to alternative sources of
energy, including nuclear power, he added.

Toshiyuki Takeuchi of the Fukushima Beacon for Global Citizens
Network (FUKUDEN), a small organization that wrote much of the
booklet launched in Sendai and led study tours of the affected
areas, pointed to the need to adapt Japan's experience to
different contexts.

For example, in some countries that have shown interest in
nuclear power, such as Bangladesh and Thailand, it may be
difficult for people to shut themselves inside concrete buildings
in the event of an accident. And in others, low literacy levels
make written public education materials less useful than comic
strip versions.

Takeuchi questioned the legitimacy of suggesting that nuclear
emergencies could really be prevented.

"Even if you can put risk reduction measures in place, it would
cost a ridiculous amount," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
in Fukushima.A radiation monitor indicates 131.00 microsieverts per
hour near the No.4 and No.3 buildings at the tsunami-crippled
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant in Fukushima prefecture, February 28,
2012.REUTERS/Kimimasa
Mayama

LONG-TERM
CONSEQUENCES

The "10 Lessons from Fukushima" booklet highlights the
longer-term social and economic consequences of the crisis, such
as families splitting apart.

It tells the story of a 29-year-old mother who decided to take
her young daughter to live in a neighboring prefecture due to
health fears, while her husband stayed behind to work.

Of the 160,000 people who left their homes after the nuclear
accident, around 120,000 are still classified as evacuees. Some
remain in cramped temporary accommodation, in prefabricated
buildings erected on parks and other public land.

In places like Iwaki City, south of the evacuation zone, the
influx of displaced people seeking new homes and jobs has stirred
resentment among residents, according to FUKUDEN.

Even though local officials have made preparations to revitalize
empty towns and villages once they are decreed safe, there is
concern that only older generations will want to return, raising
questions about their future viability.

"When you have these long-term persistent shocks... resilience
starts to break down within a society," GNDR's Oxley said.

Both activists and U.N. officials said the memory of disasters
must be preserved, so that the knowledge they generate can be
shared and used to improve protection.

"People are reluctant to talk about the nuclear issue... so
gradually we are going to forget about it," said JCC2015's
Ohashi.

Initiatives by Japanese groups, including their booklet, are
aimed at ensuring "people know the reality" of a nuclear crisis,
he said. "Maybe Fukushima could become a mecca for (learning
about) nuclear disasters in the future."